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Monday, March 03, 2008

A Decent Spoon

Confiture and Breakfast Tea, original watercolor,

When a girl goes off to Paris, she's got to have a decent spoon to take along.A decent knife and fork is fine to bring. But if she plans to paint Parisian still lifes she needs a decent spoon.French Breakfast Tea and Toast, original watercolor

And it should be the right size to go with the rest of her china.I was hoping this spoon would be the ONE.But too fussy and not your everyday kind of spoon at all.Look at any good painter's work and you'll see plenty of good spoons. Wayne Thiebaud tosses some nice spoons around. Master still life artist, Fantin-Latour knew a good spoon when he saw it and he knew what to do with it.The all-time master spoon artist is of course Chardin. A reader suggested this is evidence of an early macaron next to this Chardin's cup.I did some spoon research yesterday. There are all manner of spoons. But Re-ment miniatures is not very strong on spoons. There are souvenir spoons, Sipping spoons, Serving spoon, Absinthe spoons, Caviar spoons, egg spoons, cocaine spoons, grapefruit spoons, marrow spoon, ladles, sipping spoon, salt spoon, runcible spoons to name just a few. A silver spoon is given to a newborn child to ensure good fortune; used as a metaphor for someone born to riches. A Love spoon is a carved wooden spoon given as a token of betrothal. BTW Eric Piatkowski is the master of playing the spoons.I remembered noticing this toy shop window on 1, rue Cassette atIl Etait Une Fois (Once Upon A Time...) And you can find a similar Lady Bug set of silverware with matching teaset on Amazon.I should be doing my taxes today. But a small diversion never hurt anyone and I found the perfect spoons on Ebay. Little Bear will have to wait till they arrive.Ice cream scoop, mini shovel, honey swizzle stick, soup spoon, ladle. I don't see a decent spoon to eat this %$#@!tarte with!

Who would have thought it would be so hard to find a decent normal looking mini spoon. Good ole eBay.Will you be taking any minis to Paris with you? Love the paintings. Really like the first one with the chair peeking over the table. Love the Toast and Tea subject.

I ADORE this post. Thiebaud, Fantin-latour and Chardin -- all in one post --heaven. I had the great fortune to have dinner with Wayne Thiebaud on Friday night--ok, it was Wayne, me and about 100 other supporters of the San Jose Museum of Art, but I did get to speak to him for a moment and he was beyond charming.I love funky flatware of all types and ages -- may your spoon quest ultimately be successful.

Love today's spoon blog, and in particular, your paintings today; each very different! All that implied space, with the chair and table edge, and then in contrast, that 2nd one; a wonderfully designed pile of interlocking shapes, colors, and textures.

I am right with you on your judgement about those mini spoons: they have a terrible pebbly, dull finish, no SHINE. No shine, no beautifully painted reflections. No beautifully painted reflections and it won't matter how many macarons with hot chocolate you paint! We must have our dear PB's shiny spoons!

Just to go off on a tangent, in Hindi-Urdu slang, a chamcha (spoon) is also a sycophant -- movie stars, for example, have entourages of chamchas. I believe it derives from the idea that the chamcha is always feeding the ego of the object of his chamcha-giri

Paris Letters

♥carol gillott♥

l'Ile Saint Louis, Paris, Ile de France, France

Hi I'm Carol Gillott,
My Mom taught me watercolors at 5. I'm still at it, now tripping over cobblestones, living in a 6th-floor garret on l'Ile Saint-Louis, Paris. Read Parisbreakfast with a hot chocolate and croissant.
I paint Paris breakfasts.